HC Deb 04 July 1881 vol 262 c1936
LORD GEORGE HAMILTON

asked the Secretary of State for India, If the attention of the India Office has been directed to the letter of the Calcutta Trades' Association of the 9th May 1881 to the Viceroy of India, complaining of the recent withdrawal by the Secretary of State for India of the discretion given to the Government of India to obtain their stationery supplies in India, although the system of resorting to the local market has, in fact, resulted in a confessed success, for not only has the Government secured better and more suitable supplies, but a considerable pecuniary saving to the State has also, it is believed, been effected; and, if he is able to contradict the above statements?

THE MARQUESS OF HARTINGTON

The letter of the Calcutta Trades' Association of the 9th of May, 1881, has not been communicated to me by the Government of India; but that Government has drawn my attention to certain recent supplies to which it refers. I am not satisfied that the system of resorting to the local market has resulted in a success, or that a considerable pecuniary saving to the State has been effected, as that statement is opposed to the information forwarded to me by the Store Department of the India Office. On that question I am in correspondence with the Government of India.